[QUOTE=Brian-E;406881]Of course, those guessed one out of ten videos which don't immediately exonerate the officer will include ones where the relevant evidence simply was not captured on the video for whatever reason. Perhaps you're acknowledging that when you use the word "preliminarily".
Corrected link: [URL]http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2015/07/29/the_sam_dubose_police_report_is_full_of_falsehoods_from_ray_tensing_s_colleagues.html[/URL][/QUOTE]
Of those not immediately exonerated from video evidence, some will actually be immediately implicated due to that same video. Call that 1 in 10. So there's 5 or 6 easy convictions. And of the remaining 50 or so uncertain instances for this year alone several would merit additional investigation. Not that all of this is on video at the moment, but cases like this one clearly show the usefulness of body cameras to at least catch egregious cases of misplaced trust.

[url]https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2014/04/16/the-disturbing-messages-in-police-recruiting-videos/[/url]

[QUOTE=Xyzzy;407419][url]https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2014/04/16/the-disturbing-messages-in-police-recruiting-videos/[/url][/QUOTE]

If I didn't know better, I might characterize these as being straight out of the jihadist-recruitment school of filmmaking.

===================

o [url=http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/08/04/us-usa-police-ohio-idUSKCN0Q82DS20150804]Bottle in car of Ohio man shot by police held fragrance: coroner[/url] | Reuters

So, a possible 'in fragrante delicto' defense by the trigger-happy cop?


o [url=www.alternet.org/drugs/drug-dog-outrage-trained-alert]Drug Dog Outrage: They Are Trained to Alert[/url] | Alternet
[quote]Bloomington, IL — Police are now speaking out about a decision from the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled that drug dogs signal for drugs nearly every time they are sent to sniff a vehicle or home. This decision shows that police dog searches are not legitimate and that they are just used as a pretense for officers to violate the rights of innocent people.

The case stemmed from a 2010 traffic stop in which 20 kilograms of cocaine were found in a vehicle after a search from a police dog named “Lex.”The suspect ended up taking the case to court, and while his sentence was upheld, some very interesting points were uncovered during the investigation.

It was revealed that Lex, the drug dog in question, signaled for drugs 93% of the time, even when there were no drugs present. These findings show that dog sniffs are not accurate and are simply used as a tool to justify a full police search. The findings also indicated that Lex was incorrect roughly 40% of the time.“Lex’s overall accuracy rate … is not much better than a coin flip,” the ruling stated.

Now the police are speaking out against the ruling, saying that Lex was at the bottom of his class and not a good representation of how most police dogs operate.[/quote]
That last "bottom of his class" line - assuming for the moment it were true - is diversionary bullshit: Since you used said dog like any other "high honors graduate", it is utterly irrelevant - any people whose rights were violated based on the resulting "deep searches" had no recourse based on said argument.

But the deflectionary BS turns out to be a flat-out lie anyway - the article continues [underlines mine]:
[quote]“[u]Lex is lucky the Canine Training Institute doesn’t calculate class rank[/u]. If it did, Lex would have been at the bottom of his class,” a recent police statement said.

Police representative Michael Bieser said in an interview with the Chicago Tribune that “The opinion is unfair and very one-sided. He’s is a very, very good dog.”[/quote]
He may "be a good dog", he's simply clearly not "good at his assigned job". Hopefully some wider-scale statistics will be ferreted out on the overall efficacy of K9 drug-sniffers. The ubiquitous usage of dogs for such tasks may turn out to have been an article of faith rather than having any objective basis - at least one sufficiently compelling to overlook the false positives and the resulting unwarranted intrusions on civil liberties - based on statistically valid science.

[url]http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/08/cops-filmed-behaving-badly-say-pot-shops-camera-illegally-recorded-raid/[/url]

[QUOTE=Xyzzy;407506][URL]http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/08/cops-filmed-behaving-badly-say-pot-shops-camera-illegally-recorded-raid/[/URL][/QUOTE]

That claim reminds me of the parricidal convict who begs the judge for mercy because he is an orphan.

Come on! It was a secret recording, chief! We thought we had destroyed all the cameras and the recorder. Those sneaky hippies had a backup system to entrap us!

[url=www.mercurynews.com/crime-courts/ci_28621966/gov-brown-oks-nations-1st-ban-grand-juries]California bans grand juries in fatal shootings by police[/url] - San Jose Mercury News

[QUOTE=ewmayer;407813][URL="http://www.mercurynews.com/crime-courts/ci_28621966/gov-brown-oks-nations-1st-ban-grand-juries"]California bans grand juries in fatal shootings by police[/URL] - San Jose Mercury News[/QUOTE]

Let's hope that this becomes a trend. Viva California! :tu:

I wonder how that squares the 5th Amendment of the US Constitution:
[INDENT]No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury ...
[/INDENT]

[QUOTE=wblipp;407909]I wonder how that squares the 5th Amendment of the US Constitution:
[INDENT]No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury ...
[/INDENT][/QUOTE]

That only applies to felonies tried in the Federal Court System. See [URL="http://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/110/516.html"]HURTADO v. PEOPLE OF STATE OF CALIFORNIA[/URL]

The law only prohibits [B]SECRET[/B] grand jury procedings in any case.

[url=m.eastbayexpress.com/oakland/cops-are-not-warriors/Content?oid=4443632]Cops Are Not 'Warriors'[/url]: [i]The increasingly over-the-top funeral services for police officers killed on the job are hugely disproportionate to the dangers of the profession.[/i]

I live in the Bay Area, and found the coverage of Sgt. Lunger's slaying and subsequent assumption-into-cop-heaven-and-instant-sainthood flat-out appalling. Imagine, every night for over a solid week, at least 10% of every local news broadcast - and I surfed most of the local channels - was devoted to weepy testimonials, video of solemn processions of his 'fellow warriors and brothers (and sistahs) in arms', appeals for donations, and the like. And then Oracle bloody Arena - seriously? Last time I checked, the Mexican trabajadores who do most of CA construction have higher on-the-job fatality rates than our beloved, indispensable 'warrior hero peace officer upholders of the law and all around swell guys (and gals).'

You'd think FDR had come back from the dead and solved all the world's problems, only to be assassinated by a cowardly anarchist, erm, I mean commie fifth columnist, erm, I mean Islamist terrierist. It was un-fucking-believable.

[I especially liked the rhetorical question in the article to the effect of 'if cops are warriors, who are they at war with?']

Crazed white guy: death threats, cold cocks cop, injures 7 cops, lives
 

[URL="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/08/13/1411668/-White-man-threatens-to-kill-police-knocks-one-out-sends-two-to-the-hospital-injures-7-officers"]White man threatens to kill police, knocks one out, sends two to the hospital, injures 7 officers[/URL]

And he's not even wealthy, so no "afluenza" defense. However, his brother and his lawyer think,
[QUOTE]A brother and friend avoiding reporters at court worried drugs or medication are to blame for the assault.
"His medication might be doing some real bad things to him, and that's what I'm concerned about," said the lawyer.[/QUOTE]Of course, when a person of color is [I]killed, [/I]one of the first smears is to say that he or she was on drugs.

[QUOTE]This is [URL="http://www.kctv5.com/story/29767559/police-man-injures-seven-officers-during-fracas"]the definition of white privilege[/URL]. (source)[INDENT]"The defendant rolled down the window and said 'I know why you stopped me.' The defendant then made reference to the events in Ferguson, Missouri," according to the criminal complaint.

Joseph Parker, 34, in a wild rant, threatened to kill police, then pounced, police said. He punched 57-year-old Lt. Jeremian Goodwin, knocking him out.


From the overnight scene to lockup, Parker allegedly injured seven officers. The police chief says the man battled, nearly breaking the metal detector.
[/INDENT][/QUOTE]